Post Office inquiry latest: Alan Bates laughs at lawyer's suggestion about him

That's all from the inquiry for today…

Former sub-postmaster, lead campaigner and the man behind the Mr Bates Vs The Post Office series, Alan Bates, has been giving evidence.

Before we go, here's a reminder of the key things we learnt: 

• The inquiry heard Mr Bates was sacked by the Post Office because it considered him to be "unmanageable" - a claim he dismissed as "nonsense";
• Mr Bates described having a "positive" feeling towards the Horizon system when it was introduced, but said he quickly grew "frustrated" with its "many shortcomings";
• He added that a £6,000 variance appeared just weeks after the system was installed;
• Despite writing several letters about his concerns, Mr Bates said he "never" got a reply;
• Speaking about his termination, he said the Post Office was after him "one way or another" and bosses didn't like him "standing up to them";
• He told the inquiry he "didn't set out to spend 20 years" campaigning, but he wanted to "expose the truth";
• Turning to a 2010 letter sent to Ed Davey, who was postal minister at the time, Mr Bates said he found the correspondence "offensive" and accused the MP of ignoring "human misery";
• Mr Bates also pointed out the Post Office was insisting fears around Horizon were "unfounded" as late as 2013;
• And he dismissed a Post Office lawyer's suggestion he has a "loose relationship with the truth";
• In a slightly funny moment towards the end, Mr Bates misspoke, suggesting the Post Office should be sold to Horizon, before correcting himself to mean Amazon. 

You can catch up on all the action by scrolling through the blog, and tapping through the key points above.

Speaking to reporters outside the inquiry, Alan Bates jokes that the Post Office CEO, who was in attendance at Aldwych House today, could've thrashed out a remediation deal.

"He (Nick Read) should've brought his chequebook," he says, laughing. 

"I'm in no special place in the queue, I'm just one of the many, and yet they have to get on with it," he adds.

One more joke to finish the day comes when he's asked what he'll do when he is finally sent the money he is owed.

"I'm gonna buy a little Post Office somewhere and put my feet up," he says. 

Alan Bates has now finished giving evidence to the public inquiry, which will reconvene tomorrow at 10am. 

The inquiry was also shown a letter from Jo Swinson in 2015, when she was the Post Office minister. 

The letter, which is addressed to Alan Bates, states there is "no evidence of system-wide problems with Horizon". 

"This conclusion has stood firm through nearly two years of investigation," Ms Swinson writes. 

It was in 2015 that the Post Office announced the mediation scheme's working group closed, and all remaining cases were being referred to independent advisors. 

Jason Beer QC, counsel to the public inquiry, concludes his questions for Alan Bates by asking him to sum up his views on the culture of the Post Office.

"They're an atrocious organisation," he says.

"They need disbanding, it needs removing, it needs building up again from the ground floor.

"And as have been quoted quite commonly, the whole of the Postal Service nowadays is a dead duck - it's beyond saving."

A comic misspeak sees Mr Bates suggest Post Office should be sold to "someone like Horizon" - meaning to reference Amazon.

It was a repeat of similar comments he made in front of the business committee, when he proposed the organisation should be sold to the online giant "for £1". 

He corrects himself for saying Horizon, adding "that's the last thing I'd say". 

"It should be sold to someone like Amazon," he says.

"It needs a real big injection of money and I think that that can only happen [if it's] coming in from [the] outside. 

"Otherwise it's just going to be it's going to be a bugbear for the government for the years to come."

For the second time this afternoon, Alan Bates laughs out loud at a remark made about him by Post Office affiliates. 

This time, an email dated 2017 references Mr Bates as having a "loose relationship with the truth". 

The email was written by Andrew Parson, a partner at law firm Bond Dickinson LLP, which advised Post Office at the time. 

You can see that letter below...

To which Mr Bates responded with a laugh...

"Andy Parsons was one those who used to appear at the working group meetings - one of the many lawyers the Post Office used to send to them," he says when asked why Mr Parsons would say that. 

"I mean, I don't know why he's come up with that. I know I sometimes I might embellish, but I don't lie."

The inquiry is now looking at a section of Alan Bates's witness statement…

In one paragraph, he says he believed the mediation scheme failed as it was "part of a cover-up by the Post Office". 

He says there was "definitely an element of not wanting to accept fault" by the Post Office, and the company likely "discovered things that they did not like and did not want to come out". 

"I believe the Post Office had no intention whatsoever of getting to a mutually acceptable and fair decision," he adds. 

"If anything, it seemed as if the Post Office had been using the scheme as a fishing expedition to see what evidence sub-postmasters actually had about Horizon." 

During the break earlier, we caught a word from Post Office chief executive Nick Read, who has sat in the inquiry throughout the day. 

While the wrongful convictions that came about due to the Horizon issues did not happen on his watch, he is in charge of the compensation scheme which is still a point of contention for many affected. 

He said he is still focused on "getting to the truth" of the scandal and bringing "transparency to the process". 

Asked what he thought of the evidence given by Alan Bates today, he said it was "very, very compelling" and "very sobering". 

"We want to make sure the culture of today's Post Office learns the lessons from the past," he added. 

Alan Bates is discussing his frustrations with the remediation scheme set up to help postal workers. 

He said at the time (2014) that "the further the scheme progresses, the more entrenched and defensive Post Office becomes". 

Asked today to explain why he felt like that, he highlights disclosure as the key issue.

"Once these cases were being investigated, in theory, by Post Office, they were asking for more and more time," he says. 

There was meant to be a four to six-week period for investigations, but the Post Office consistently asked for extension after extension, he says. 

Sub-postmasters were forced to sit tight while the mediation scheme spent "six months or seven months" waiting to investigate claims, he says. 

"It just dragged on and on and on."

After a short break, the inquiry is back and Alan Bates is still giving evidence.

Jason Beer QC, counsel to the public inquiry, continues to ask questions about the mediation scheme set up to help postal workers affected by the scandal.